ABSTRACT
This paper, product of meta-research associated with some documental analysis, aims to revisit the history of Applied Linguistics (AL) in the light of Complex Systems: systems with different types of elements which connect and interact in different and changing ways. This history is approached in relation to change, upon the notion that AL is a system of living agents and in ongoing processes of coadaptation to the environment, be it within or outside the associations to which they adhere. For such, five characteristics are identified in AL trajectory: a) adaptive; b) non-linear; c) open; d) dynamic(al); e) having heterogeneous agents. Therefore, we intend to corroborate the historical perspective about the emergence of autonomous AL as a system in ongoing and incessant process of change.
Contemporary AL; Complex systems; Change